


Supervision Optional

by his_valentine



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Absent Parents, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dubious Consent, F/M, Recreational Drug Use, Sibling Incest, alcohol use, the dubcons in chap4 whoops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:32:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 20,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22461163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/his_valentine/pseuds/his_valentine
Summary: Modern!AU: Soren's just come back from his first year at boot camp. Not many things have changed, but what has will make all the difference.
Relationships: Claudia/Soren (The Dragon Prince)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

She'd been curious about the smell when she came creeping into Soren's room that first night after he came back from camp, and found him sitting up on the edge of his bed, slightly hunched over and taking a drag off of what looked like a cigarette. He hadn't even bothered to change yet, still wearing the uniform pants and plain white t-shirt he'd arrived in an hour ago.

"Are you smoking?" Claudia declared accusingly. Soren jumped and stared at her aghast, pinching the lit end to snuff it out. She had already changed into her usual sleepwear, an old set of workout clothes that'd gotten visibly well-worn.

"Shit!" he yelped, then glared and told her to, "Close the door, you're letting the smoke out into the hallway!"

Claudia let herself in before she did close the door. "What are you- fine! Put the towel back, too," he griped further as she walked over to try and look at what he was hiding in his hand. "The towel, Claudia," he said, nodding behind her.

Claudia glanced back and saw a damp towel on the floor. "Do what with it?" she asked him. Soren sighed and got up, shoving something into his pocket before he walked over and nudged the towel in front of the clearance between his door and the floor.

"What are you doing in here? It smells," she kept wondering, waving her hand in front of her face. She couldn't quite place the scent- it was woodsy and floral, a little too cloying to be incense. Not much like the acrid scent of tobacco cigarettes their father would rarely indulge in during stress, either.

"Don't tell Dad, okay? It's just a little weed- it kinda helps me calm down," Soren explained, looking a little nervous. Claudia found that she wasn't as shocked as she maybe should have been, so she just nodded in understanding.

A few of the other seniors at the high school she went to indulged. Nobody she hung out with personally, but she'd heard rumors. Soren had never seemed the type to go that route, but he'd been gone at camp for a whole year now. Plenty of time to pick up a new habit, she supposed.

"How often do you do it?" she questioned. Soren shrugged, not quite able to meet her eyes.

"Just sometimes, when I'm stressed out, can't sleep..." he moved to sit back on his bed. Claudia invited herself to sit down next to him.

"I can't sleep either," she insinuated. Soren glanced at her suspiciously. "Let me try or I'll tell Dad when he gets back," she then insisted, driving the point. Soren sighed and rolled his eyes knowingly.

"I just knew you'd do this if you caught me. Fine, but only a little. I don't want you getting all tripped out-" he reached into his pocket, but then frowned before he pulled out what now looked like a hand-rolled and shredded cigarette, due to how carelessly he'd pocketed it. "God fucking damn it," he cursed as he looked at it. Claudia blinked at that, wondering when he'd started using such crude language so casually.

"Clauds, could you grab me that book-" he motioned to a book laying on its side on his dresser, and as Claudia stood to grab it he said, "yeah, there we go." Soren placed it across his lap as she handed it over, then pulled a few more things out of his other pocket, a tiny rectangular box and a lighter.

Seating herself back down next to him, Claudia quietly watched as her brother opened the tiny box and pulled out a single sheet of rolling paper, already creased down the middle and gummed along one of the long ends. The delicate, careful nature of his work reminded her vaguely of dark magic. He diligently split the broken one down the middle, scooped out the dark green herbal matter inside and spread that out down the middle of the fresh paper.

He stuck the old, charred and broken paper in his mouth and chewed on it as he put the box of papers away and pulled out, instead, a tiny cellophane bag half-filled with more marijuana. Claudia began to lean closer as he added two pinches more. "What are you doing?" she finally asked as he started to fold and roll it up before he brought it to his mouth.

He wet the gummed edge with his tongue before he answered, while spinning the sticky edge down and pinching off the open ends, "I'm rolling a new joint."

She nodded, still staring in fascination as he then placed one end in his mouth and lit it up. He took a long, deep inhale through it like a straw. The burning end began to glow more intently in the dark of Soren's room, illuminating just his face in a dull orange glow. His eyes crossed to look at the ember and then lowered hazily before he finally pulled it down.

He breathed in again, through his mouth, and Claudia could see the strands of smoke rolling around between his lips, shimmering in the sliver of moonlight coming in through his window. Then he finally started to exhale. Claudia was amazed by the amount of smoke that came rushing out of his lungs. Then suddenly he was waving the joint in her face. This close to it, the smell tickled at her nose and made her a little sniffly.

"You gonna back down?" Soren challenged her as she waved at her nose again. She huffed at him and snatched the joint out of his hand, put it in her mouth, and tried to suck on it. Then she immediately started coughing. Soren chuckled, though he did rub at her back a little as she leaned forward, and grabbed the joint out of her hand right before she would have bumped her knee with the lit end. "That was a big hit, but you didn't really hold it well. How are you feeling?"

Once she thought she had caught her breath, Claudia began, "M-mostly," and then she hacked and coughed a little more before she was able to explain clearly, "mostly the same, just with an itchy throat. Ugh," she cleared her throat one more time.

"Here, I'll just- give you a good hit, since you don't know what you're doing-"

"Well excuse me for not being a drug expert, Soren~"

"Hey! Do you want to try it again or not?" he asked her. Claudia quieted, with a nod. "Alright. I'm going to blow the smoke in your face. Just... breathe it in with your mouth. It won't be as harsh that way." Once she'd given him another nod, he then took a second hit, for an even longer time than before, until his chest had visibly swollen with it.

He lowered the joint, then turned his attention to Claudia and leaned down towards her. She wasn't sure what to do, and when he noticed the look on her face, he gently cupped her chin and showed her how he wanted her to tip back her head just a bit. Leaning closer still, until their lips were mere millimeters apart, only then he started to slowly blow out the smoke.

Claudia parted her lips and started to inhale as Soren had instructed. Like he'd also said, the smoke wasn't nearly as rough, as it came in mixed with air and at a slow, constant rate. Once she'd gotten a nice full breath, she leaned back, and Soren turned his head to exhale the last bit out before he looked back to her. "How do you feel now?" Soren asked her. Claudia hummed quietly as she took notice of the fact that she felt just a little dizzy and heavy. It was kind of fun, in a weird way.

Soren's eyes were a little red around the edges, and he had a calm little smile on his face. She giggled slightly at the view, at the sound of that Soren's smile turned a little teasing as he pointed out, "Yeah, looks like you got it this time."

"I think I did," she agreed, and then giggled softly some more. Soren snickered along with her before he started to take another drag. Claudia shuffled to her knees so that she could turn fully to him, and this time she was the one who leaned up expectantly, waiting on her second hit.

"You sure?" Soren asked with his voice held tight, though a little smoke escaped when he spoke. She nodded, tapping her bottom lip with her finger as she held her mouth slightly open. He leaned down to her once more, but when he tapped her chin up this time the contact made the rest of Claudia's face and neck tingle.

His eyes fluttered closed this time as he blew the hit out and she took it in, this time hardly any of the thick smoke was able to escape out from between their mouths. She breathed in slower, more carefully now, and rather than sit back halfway through, this time she reached up and braced her hands on his shoulders as she kept pulling until Soren had nothing left to give her.

He'd already taken a few hits, even before his sister had come barging in and demanding breath exercises out of him. That's what he blamed his brief dizzy spell on as he swayed against her for just a second once he'd finished exhaling. Their lips brushed, but then they quickly tipped forward until their foreheads were touching instead. Soren blinked his eyes back open just in time to watch as thin, light grey smoke came rolling out of Claudia's nose and mouth.

He felt decently blitzed out, so he snuffed out the rest of the joint on his tongue after sitting back. Claudia huffed in amusement at the sight, entertained by the soft hissing noise. Then she realized and said out loud, "Sorbear. I think... I think I'm feeling it now."

"How does it feel?" Soren asked her, as he reclined back, laying across the width of the bed with his knees bent over the edge. Claudia followed suit, flopping onto her side next to him.

"I feel..." Claudia took another personal stock. "Like the towel!" she blurted out as it occurred to her, and then started laughing. Soren snickered in automatic response, but he did give her a look like he wasn't quite following. "The floor towel, Soren. How it's all floppy and just sitting there. That's how I feel."

"That's dumb, Claudia," Soren told her, rolling onto his side now so that they were facing one another. "Dumb, but, yeah. I guess that makes sense. I feel like the towel, too."

"What's that for, anyway?" she wondered.

"Read it on the internet. It's 'sposed to block the smell from getting into the hallway," he explained.

She shook her head with a scoff, "Well, that wasn't working. You're just lucky Dad's busy with work right now either way. Why not just... open the window or something?"

"Oh yeah," Soren simply said in realization, and then they both started to laugh. After they'd calmed, he then proclaimed, "I'm gonna do that, and maybe... maybe put on some music," he didn't budge at first, before he added on, "in a moment."

"Oh," Claudia giggled a little sheepishly. "I borrowed your CDs and the player. They're in my room. I'll go get them," she said but didn't move either. After a beat of silence, Claudia suggested once more, "We should get up."

"Mhm," Soren hummed agreeably, though they both stayed in place for a little while longer. Until finally, with a series of theatrical grunts, Soren started to sit up. Claudia did too, also groaning softly as her sense of inertia proved stronger than usual.

"Ready to stand?" Soren asked as he was doing so himself.

Claudia shook her head, told him, "Give me a second, Sorbear. Actually, if you wanna just go and get it..."

"Sure, since you've obviously been in my room," he said. She winced at his slightly accusatory tone, but then waved him off as he left out the door. She flopped back onto his bed, staring at the ceiling and wondering if maybe she should call out where she'd put it. But that seemed too hard right now, so she found herself content to wait.

She closed her eyes, even though that just made the floaty rush stronger. It felt like an amusement park ride but without the sense of dread or the worry that something could go wrong. After all, she was safe at home, in her big brother's room, and he was a real soldier now. The idea made her giddily proud.

* * *

"Can't believe she hoisted my jams..." Soren muttered as he let himself into Claudia's room. She'd kept the light on, as usual, which made the fact that she'd painted her walls a dark purple stand out in contrast. She hadn't really made any major changes to her room since the last time he'd been in here, except for maybe a few new jars on the shelf of 'specimens' above her altar. Soren walked well around all of that, hoping she hadn't decided to stash his stuff there.

He walked by her computer desk and bookcase, just giving them a cursory glance as he decided to start with the three-tiered dresser in the far corner of her room. That's where he'd been keeping it in his room, after all. He checked the first drawer and found mostly tops and a few dresses. A shuffle through those produced no further results, so he moved onto the next one. That one was full of pants and skirts, and again he moved things around and discovered nothing more.

The last drawer, which Soren had to kneel to get to, was full of lacy, silky things. Immediately Soren closed it back up, then went still, fingers still wrapped around the handle as he reconsidered. If he was hiding something stolen, he'd probably keep it somewhere people wouldn't want to dig through, like in an underwear drawer. Slowly, silently, Soren pulled it back open. It wasn't like they were dirty after all- that would be weird. He shoved his hand in and felt around until finally, his fingers brushed against something hard and plastic.

He wrapped his hand around it, realized immediately by the shape that it couldn't possibly be his CD player, and pulled it out to look anyway. Then he gasped and dropped the black vibrator he'd just discovered. He slammed the drawer shut once more, heart thundering in his chest. _That_ was new.

Or was it? Soren had never really gone digging around in his sister's stuff like this before... so he couldn't really know how long she'd been doing things like that. He resolved never to bring up what he'd found out about as he stood and turned away from the dresser.

He could clearly see that her bookcase only held books and a jewelry box that probably didn't contain jewelry, but it was too small for his CD player to be in there. That left her computer desk and then... maybe under something?

Somewhere on or in the computer desk seemed a lot more likely, so he moved over there and peeked around the top surfaces. "Oops," he said to himself when he accidentally bumped the slide-out keyboard tray which nudged the mouse around enough to make Claudia's star-warp screensaver fade away. Mere idle curiosity meant he peeked, of course, but it really had been an accident.

At first, he only skimmed over the words, until he spied a short sentence that gave him pause. 'He whimpered as his older brother thrust.' Soren restarted the passage from the top, paying attention now. He quickly stopped again when he recognized the names of the characters from a television show Claudia and him used to watch together. Embarrassed, he unthinkingly closed the browser and shut off the screen.

He decided to check the desk cabinet instead, breathing a sigh of relief when he finally found his music player in there and lined up neatly against the back of the cabinet behind it were his CDs. He grabbed the player and then glanced over the spines of the jewel cases, taking notice that she'd only swiped a couple of the ones she also liked.

He kind of enjoyed the way a small collection of his favorites from a shameful emo phase looked nestled in the dark wood of her desk. It matched the general ambiance in here more. So he left the CDs- he'd bought some new ones while he was gone anyway, just had been using vehicles to play them until now.

He flipped off the lights before he left, closing the door. As usual, the hallway between their rooms was clean, with a crimson carpet and white walls. In between the doors to each of their rooms was a painting composed of softly swirling hues. It's always reminded Soren of a sunrise. He stopped and regarded it more carefully.

He'd been feeling strangely out of place since he'd arrived. Something about this painting was familiar, comforting. As far back as he could remember, it's always hung here, and he'd never questioned that. It reminded him of how long he'd called this place home. It'd just felt weird to come back after such a long time away to a nearly empty house with hardly any fanfare.

Their dad had apparently been at work for the past few days and wouldn't be due back for at least a couple more. Claudia had met him at the door with a hug, asked him if he was hungry, and when he'd said he'd already eaten she had just shrugged and said she was going to bed then. Though she'd wandered into his room later, was still waiting on him actually he now remembered. He broke out of his daze and went back into his room.

Claudia was still lying where she'd been since he left, though in that time she'd closed her eyes. She wasn't asleep, though, because as soon as the door had latched back into place behind Soren's entrance she was sitting up, watching him with hooded, hazy red eyes. He chuckled at how obviously high she'd gotten.

"Saw that you stole all my MCR, nerd," he teased. Claudia blew a raspberry at him.

"Yeah, well, which one of them did you grab, dork?" she asked him.

He shrugged, moving over to the duffel bag he'd left beside the door. He deposited the player on his dresser for now. "Figured we could play some of my new stuff? I'm not really in an MCR kinda mood," he said as he crouched to dig through it.

"Yeah, that's fine," Claudia said agreeably and laid herself back down. Soren hummed in victory as he found what he was looking for and pulled out the small stack of CDs he'd placed near one end of the bag, then stood back up and spread them out across his dresser to make a final decision. Already, the bedroom felt a little more lived-in again, which helped Claudia relax deeper into the blankets.

After he'd first left, their father had come and 'de-cluttered' Soren's room. He'd mostly went through and shoved his weights, his football, his clothing, and anything else that was explicitly his into the closet. That was when Claudia had swiped a few things, just what she could see herself wanting to use while he was gone.

She'd been a little frustrated when she'd seen that Soren's various trophies were also going into the closet, had even offered to take one of hers off the mantle so that there could be room for one of them. Viren had explained to her that there was a chance Soren would decide to move away entirely while he was gone and that keeping all of his things together would make it easier to send to him later if that happened.

She was glad he hadn't decided to move away forever yet.

"Hey," Soren's voice sounded out, breaking her out of her drifting thoughts. "Ever heard of A Perfect Circle?" he asked.

"I think so?" she hummed as she thought about it. She's pretty sure she's at least heard of them, but she'd never really sat down and purposely listened.

"Good to zone out to," he explained as he opened one of the cases, popped it into the player and pressed play, then turned the volume up. As the intro to the first track built he returned to his bed, to the same spot he had been. This time when he laid himself back he lounged out indulgently with a groan of satisfaction.

Claudia let the crescendo build and wash over her, not paying much attention to the lyrics of the vocals. In fact, she had almost fallen asleep halfway through when she vaguely heard Soren begin to hum and mumble along, though at first, his enunciation was unclear. Claudia rolled over and opened her eyes to see how he had thrown one arm over his eyes, while his other hand was gripping at the bottom hem of his shirt, which had slid up slightly.

"Give this to me," he whispered softly, audibly and in time with the music. Normally, she teased him for singing along, but this time Claudia only silently gazed at him as the outro began and he continued to whisper along. "Take what's mine," he inhaled sharply and repeated, still in time if not entirely in tune, "Take what's mine, mine…"

She huffed quietly, which was enough to break Soren out of his trance and he turned his head to look at her as the rest of the song played. As the last notes faded out, Claudia stated, "I'm gonna fall asleep if I stay here. Going back to my room," and this time when she sat up, it was a lot more slowly so that she wouldn't reel.

"Alright," Soren looked back up to the ceiling. "Night, Claudia," he added on while she was getting up. She staggered and ended up bracing her hand off one of the bedposts. It felt like the fuzzy feeling had just dropped out from her head and down the rest of her body as she stood. Her knees wobbled until she was forced to sit back down heavily on his bed.

She came down hard enough to jostle Soren out of another light trance, and he glanced at her again and furrowed his brows until he realized out loud, "Headrush?"

"Is that what happened?" Claudia asked as an answer. Soren let out an amused huff, and she scoffed at that. "Okay, let's try that again." This time she steadied herself as she stood, then waited until the rush had mostly settled before she took a few steps. Once she was certain she wouldn't stumble too much, she finally let herself out.

Once she'd closed the door, she leaned against the wall and sort of… slid herself down the hallway to her bedroom. She didn't feel sick or upset, just strangely disoriented. She could still hear the music, but it was muffled. She managed to get into her bedroom, and if she noticed the light was off now it didn't seem to matter much as she bee-lined to the bed and practically collapsed onto it.

She still felt fuzzy and languid as she rolled around to get into a comfortable position with the blanket up over her body. It was easy to understand how Soren had gotten into feeling like this. Truth be told, she was already looking forward to next time, though a small unsure part of her wondered whether he would let her join again.

* * *

At 5 in the morning sharp, the alarm on Soren's wrist began to sound off. Soren snapped his eyes open and sat up immediately before he remembered where he was. He turned off the alarm, feeling a little bleary now that he knew he could relax and lay back down. Before long, though, he started to get restless. Claudia wouldn't be up for at least another hour, two if she skipped her morning shower. Soren hoped she wouldn't feel too muddled whenever she did awaken.

He'd really gone and gotten his little sister high last night, hadn't he? Soren frowned at himself as the implications of that began to settle in. Another secret to keep from his dad, just what he needed. Soren wondered again when their father would deign to come back home. A small part of him had been hoping to see Viren when he'd first arrived, but that opportunity had already been passed up.

He sat back up, deciding to work out, keep his body busy so that his mind would stop wandering over rough terrain. He snorted in irritation when, while seeking out his weights in the morning light, he realized his room had been gutted. It looked more like a guest room than his own, sterile and generic and devoid of any personal touch he'd left over the years.

Claudia borrowing things that she used, that made sense, that was fine. The obsessive cleanliness of his room in his absence didn't strike him as something his sister would do anyway. This had 'Dad' written all over it. Soren climbed out of his bed and started to check around, wondering where all of his things had gone.

He threw the closet open, then huffed in disbelief when he found most of the stuff that he'd noticed missing was in here. At least it had all been put away _nicely_ , he supposed. The trophies were lined up on the top shelf, his posters had been rolled up and leaned up against one of the corners, and there were his weights in the bottom-most compartment of a cubby.

He gathered a few of the warm-up ones, took them back to where they'd been sitting in the corner of the room and placed them back where they belonged. The bigger ones he took one at a time as he set them where he wanted them to stay. Instead of going straight to using them, though, once he was done Soren returned to his closet and grabbed the posters instead. The sticky tack on the backs of them hadn't been peeled off, so he kneaded them malleable and then stuck all the posters back up.

They were in new spots, but at least they were visible. He glanced to the almost empty set of shelves where he'd been displaying his trophies, since there'd never been enough room on the mantle, but decided not to set those back up for now. Obviously, all the times he'd won the game for Katolis High wasn't that big of a deal. Plus, he'd just heard some rustling from Claudia's room next door, and so now he was wondering if he should check on her due to last night.

Before he had decided, though, his door had opened up and Claudia was peeking her head in. "You're up already?" she asked. Soren turned to her with a shrug.

"Gotta get up early at boot camp- guess I got used to it," he explained. Claudia nodded with comprehension.

"Well, I'm gonna get ready for school," she informed him before she was gone, walking past his room to the upstairs bathroom. Soren started to consider what he would be doing for his first day back home. Had he even told anybody besides his family that he was back yet? He decided to start there, which meant he had to dig through his duffel bag to find his phone.

This time he just picked up the duffel bag and dumped it out onto his bed. Mostly it was filled with clothes. He placed his hand over one blue sweatshirt that was particularly tightly-wrapped and pressed down on it slightly, just to make sure the bottle it was wrapped around was still in place.

Then he grabbed the phone that'd also fallen out, turning to sit on his bed as he brought it up to his face and began clicking and typing…

* * *

Showering had helped to rinse off the last of the blank, almost melancholy mood Claudia had first awoken in. Now, she felt refreshed and ready to get going with her day. The fuzziness from last night had all but faded, but she could swear she still felt strangely light as she danced around while putting on her clothes.

Once she was dressed she came out with a pop to her step, and on a whim, she peeked in on her brother again as she passed by his door. He didn't do much more than give a glance to her before he went back to looking at his phone. She let herself in once more.

"So, Sorbear…" she paused, waiting to see if he was even listening. This close, she could tell he was texting, just by the design of the app that was open.

"Uh-huh?" he prompted but didn't stop moving his fingers or eyes across the screen.

"I had fun last night," Claudia confessed, biting her lip as she rocked on her heels. At that, Soren did pause, glancing up to her from where she was standing close by now.

"What are you getting at?" he scowled before he sharply told her, "I'm not getting you high before school, Clauds-"

"No!" Claudia was quick to agree with that, "I wouldn't be able to go out like that, geeze! I just- wanted to let you know."

"Oh, okay," Soren's momentary outrage faded quickly as he remembered that for the most part, his sister had common sense. The phone in his hands dinged and he quickly glanced over the new message.

"By the way," he said just as Claudia was going to leave. She paused at the threshold to his door, listening. "Are you sure Dad's not coming today?" he asked her.

"He said he wouldn't be able to get back until the last week…" Claudia said, a little morose. She turned back to him and added, "I'm sorry, Sorsor."

"Whatever," Soren huffed. "I just want to know because a few friends are coming over to hang out. You don't mind, do you? We'll stick to the downstairs." He was mostly paying attention to his phone once more.

Claudia considered it. Of course, Soren would want to see his friends again just as much. She couldn't begrudge him that. "That's fine," she told him airily as she walked away, heading downstairs to toast some bread before she'd go catch the bus.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put together some visual references for the house while writing this chapter:  
> [First Floor](https://66.media.tumblr.com/120d495bd25c7192b2507afd2c94b4e1/9de93b7c6fd9f225-4b/s1280x1920/dd8b8d9779f33603bbea4488df3b1a180b58ab0a.png)  
> [Second Floor](https://66.media.tumblr.com/38bf5ba23a8719f33cc796cba241ad56/9de93b7c6fd9f225-c0/s1280x1920/031c698eb23e46701903a2f2785bf2d1624cc73d.png)  
> The colors are not accurate, however. I was going more for contrast and clarity with those.

Her day at school had played out almost depressingly mundane.

It started with the mayor's step-son offering to walk with her to the bus stop like he had been doing since Soren's departure. Claudia noticed that her brother was watching from his window as she met up with the younger boy out in front of the house, and made sure to wave a final goodbye to him. Callum startled slightly at the realization of who she was waving to after he'd followed her gaze.

Classes went by in a bit of a daze, due to Claudia's inattention drifting again and again to thoughts of what her brother could be up to. Especially since he'd said that his friends would be coming over. At lunch, she considered inviting some of her own friends to balance it out, but decided against that before she'd mentioned it.

All of Soren's friends were mostly grown, very nearly men by now. She'd probably just go to her room if they were still there when she got back, maybe take the time to catch up on some reading. Assuming, of course, she didn't have homework to do first. At any rate, she had plans to keep out of the way.

After another long, uneventful school day, the final bell rang. Claudia and Callum met up again at the bus loop out back and boarded together. On the ride to school, he hadn't brought it up, but now Callum commented, "So, your brother's back," and then glanced around before he asked, "What happened?"

"Nothing happened," she scoffed, mildly offended by the implications in the way he had asked so quietly. "He's just on leave for a month and decided to visit."

"Oh," Callum looked nervous as he glanced away and began mumbling, "sorry, I didn't mean to imply anything bad..."

"It's fine, Callum," she assured him. But the rest of the ride passed by in awkward silence. Even when they both got off at the same stop, Callum quickly began to speed walk ahead of her, still seemingly mortified. Claudia shrugged dismissively and focused on heading home.

When she first approached the front door she could already hear the music bumping loudly. Upon opening the door and coming into the foyer, she saw a bunch of people she'd never met before. They were laughing obnoxiously loud and shoving at each other, which made the red cups in their hands tip and splash around. There was smoke wafting through the air, coming from the living room. It smelled similar to the smoke from last night but somehow different. Stronger, maybe.

This… wasn't what she was expecting when Soren had said 'a few friends' would be 'hanging out.' This looked more like a house party. Claudia was very, very glad she hadn't brought along any friends after all. She peeked in and scanned over the gathering in the living room, heart beginning to race when she couldn't pick out Soren right away. Here, another small gathering of young adults passed around a palm-sized blue glass object that they were smoking from.

Suddenly there was an awful chorus of, "Whooooo!" that clearly came from the kitchen, though it echoed throughout the house. Claudia immediately recognized her brother's cheer among them, and raced back across the foyer to go see what was happening. She walked through the dining room wordlessly, glad that nobody paid much attention to her, and looked into the kitchen.

One guy was chugging from a bottle, and several other young men around him were egging him on, Soren included. Claudia frowned and stormed over to him, ready to start telling him off right there in front of all of his friends.

Soren wasn't the first one who noticed her, though. "Oh shit, Clauds, is that you? You grew up nice," said one of the guys standing right next to him, unabashedly roving his eyes down her body.

Claudia glared, trying to place a name to his face before she responded. Before she could do that, though, she noticed Soren's grin abruptly drop before he rounded onto his friend. "What the hell did you just say to her?" he asked, lowly.

The guy chuckled, holding up his hands passively. "You know I didn't mean it, man. When did you get so…" he considered his next word.

Soren grabbed at the collar of his shirt and gave him a violent shake before he started to snarl, "You ever so much as look at her again," and then suddenly he'd also pulled out a knife and the kitchen went silent as he brought it up threateningly to the other man's face, "I'll kill you."

Claudia shifted closer to her brother as the guy who'd spoken to her stammered, "Dude, hold on! Soren, buddy, I was just joking around."

"I'm not," he replied, still in that low predatory tone. Then he took a deep breath, shoved the guy away, and dropped the knife to his side as he announced, "Get the fuck out of my house. All of you. Party's over!" Anybody in the kitchen who hadn't already left at the sight of a weapon began to quickly make their exit.

Claudia was shivering as she just quietly followed after Soren as he went through the rooms downstairs and told each group he found to leave. At some point, the music was shut off as people were heading out. After that, he wordlessly moved aside a ribbon he'd strung across the stairs to mark them off-limits and checked upstairs, just in case. Luckily, they didn't come across anybody up there.

Only once he was certain that everyone had been cleared out did the tension riding heavy on Soren's shoulders smooth out, and he stopped shaking with frustration. "Soren, I'm sorry, I was just looking for you…" she started to say.

"Stop. You didn't do anything wrong," Soren told her firmly, though not unkindly. "You want that guy to apologize to you later?" he questioned, turning to her. Claudia giggled and shook her head.

"I'd rather just not see him again," she told Soren, but then added on more seriously, "but not as in- you don't need to kill him. What was that about?"

Soren revealed the pocketknife he'd started carrying around, keeping it folded up as he showed it to her. "That guy's always been weird to you, and I'm tired of it."

Claudia felt that imperceptible shiver start back up. "Hey, Sorbear?" she glanced up from the knife to him, and he nodded for her to go on. "You said- that stuff helps you calm down. I'm a little shaken up after that. Do you think we could…?"

Soren pocketed his knife again, rolling his eyes as a fond smile broke out across his face. "I could use it too," he admitted and led the way to his room. Claudia sat herself down on the bed and looked around as Soren gathered up the things he needed to prepare.

She only now noticed that he'd put his posters back up and taken a few more things out of his closet. "I'm glad you decided not to move out," Claudia said aloud after he'd sat next to her. Soren paused and gave her a weird look.

"Who said I was movin' out?" he asked.

"Nobody, it's just that Dad said you might decide to, while you were gone," she explained. Soren hummed and decided not to respond, instead he went back to rolling them a joint. She started to realize that he was faintly swaying even while sitting, and he had his tongue poked out like he had to concentrate harder, compared to the last time she'd watched him do this.

"You wanna try 'n hit it yourself? I shouldn't breathe in your face this time, been drinkin'" he said as he gave her the joint and a lighter. Claudia took them, looked between the two and back to Soren before offering them back.

"I don't know how!" she said, petulant now. He took them back at the sight of her pout.

"Here," he told her gruffly, then leaned over and put one end of the joint up to her mouth. She leaned forward and took it in, eyes crossing as she watched him use the lighter on the other end. She still hadn't quite figured that part out before the fire flickered away and Soren was murmuring into her ear, "Now pull, slow."

Claudia pulled, slow, shuddering as the smoke entered her lungs while Soren practically purred out from right beside her, "There we go, just like that. Nice and deep." She reached up to hold it, for a moment their hands brushed before he'd passed it off to her entirely and then she brought it down.

She exhaled just as slowly, and as she did she felt the rush that came on far more distinctly this time. Even though she was planted firmly on the bed, Claudia suddenly felt like she was falling through open air. She swooned and then flopped back, not missing the way Soren rapidly shifted to check on her before he chuckled and plucked the joint away before she'd burnt anything.

He took a hit, and then before either of them had time to process what he was doing Soren leaned down and blew it out across her mouth anyway. Claudia gasped softly in her haste to start inhaling again, able to taste the slightest sting of liquor on his breath. She blinked her eyes open as she felt him pull away, unsure of when she'd closed them.

"Thought you weren't going to do that," she said, a little breathlessly. He hadn't completely sat up, was still mostly looming over her.

"Was it too much?" he asked, visibly relieved when she quickly shook her head.

"Could smell the booze," she informed him, and then started to ask rather quickly, "What were you drinking? How much? How do you feel?"

"Mostly vodka, but… not a lot. Maybe a pint? I'm fine," he answered. She gazed at him and wondered if he would even know otherwise.

"Is there any left?" she asked, tone wheedling. Soren sat up and away from her.

"I'm not getting you drunk, too," he told her. Claudia sat up, scoffing sarcastically at him.

"Why not? You are," she snapped at him accusingly.

"You're already high and you've never drank, right?" at her nod, Soren continued by saying, "I don't know if- what if you get sick? I'll let you try that later, by itself, but for now…" he showed her the joint, still slowly smoldering in his hand, and then handed it off to her.

"You promise?" Claudia pleaded before she'd taken a hit.

Soren huffed and nodded. "I promise," he swore, "now less talking and more puffing." Claudia shot him a playful pout as she took a drag with ease this time. On this hit, though, she got cocky and choked a little after holding it a bit too long, leaning over her lap to cough as she shoved it out in Soren's vague direction.

Soren took the joint, took a quick drag before he snuffed it out, then started to pat Claudia as she cleared her throat. Eventually, she felt well enough to shrug off his platitudes. "Feeling better now?" he asked her anyway.

"Mmhmm," Claudia murmured as she sat up straight and cleared out her lungs with a breath of fresh air. "What about you?" she questioned him, next.

He nodded, but then softly groaned and laid down, already shifting around so that he was laying out across it properly. "Feeling a lil spun out, actually. Unless you wanna watch me pass out, you can go…" He noticed that she actually didn't leave right away, but he was getting too messed up to protest as he quietly let unconsciousness take over soon after saying that.

Only after he'd fully settled into slumber did Claudia stand and silently leave the room. This time she managed to actually walk to her bedroom, no wall support necessary. She wasn't quite as tired out by it this time around either and began to realize that she had the opportunity to fully experience her current state.

She still wasn't sure how to process Soren's behavior in the kitchen, especially now that she knew he'd definitely been more than a little inebriated during his outburst. She supposed to everybody else in the room it had come off as scary, but since it'd been Claudia he was protecting, she hadn't been frightened at all. In fact, she blushed when it suddenly struck her as impossibly chivalrous of him.

She'd always known him to be someone who wouldn't back down from a challenge, but try as she might she couldn't remember a time when he'd gotten so openly hostile. The way he'd stomped around the house, raising his voice again at anyone who had dared to protest even momentarily… it still sent shivers down her spine to think of it. Her gaze automatically darted to the bottom part of her dresser as she started to recognize the growing feeling.

'Don't you dare,' she thought to herself, even as her feet were guiding her to it, even as she kneeled down to open the drawer. Her breath still deepened as she located and withdrew her vibrator, then backed up to go sit on her bed. She unzipped the side of her skirt and shimmied it down her legs before swinging her feet up onto the bed, scooting up so that she was laying out along the length of it.

She pulled the covers over her bottom half, just on the off chance anybody came wandering in before she bit her lip and slid her free hand down the front of her panties. She just teased herself, for now, warming up as she gently kneaded at her mound. She tried to keep her mind blank, but it just wouldn't stop drifting to earlier that afternoon.

The way Soren had growled, and the way his eyes had snapped wider and sparked with malice when he'd threatened to kill the other boy. Even before then, the sliver of defined abdomen that she'd glimpsed as he panted and sang along the night before… Claudia delved deeper, biting back a noise as she started to slide a finger back and forth slowly over her clit. He'd kept getting close to her face since coming back, too, hovering over her, putting things in her mouth.

Her fingers drifted down momentarily, just enough to gather up some of her own wetness so that the slide was smoother as she started to schlick herself faster. She couldn't help but roll her hips sinuously, bucking against her own touch. As she started to feel herself approach the end, Claudia slid the vibrator between her lips and turned it on, grinding along the length of it as the soft buzzing echoed up through her body.

"Ha, haa~" Claudia dug in her heels and arched as she started to work the vibrator back and forth, humping up against it desperately now. Once more against her own will, another thought of Soren entered her mind. This one was only imaginary, though.

He was poised above her, just like he had been less than an hour ago, half-shot and unrestrained. This time when he came down to her, there was no smokescreen, literally or figuratively, that obscured his ulterior motives. In her mind, he'd actually kissed her, grabbing at the front of her shirt almost as violently as he had with the boy he'd gotten angry with for her sake.

Her body started to tense, and she had to bite at her lip until it hurt to keep the needy groans at bay as her pleasure culminated. She writhed, holding the vibrator down in place to drag out her climax until she'd grown over-sensitive to it and had to turn it off.

After she'd caught her breath and her thighs had relaxed enough that she could willfully part them, she moved the vibrator out from between her legs and dropped it to the bed before she fell completely lax, still panting and trembling in the aftermath of her session. She realized quickly enough that there was no way she'd be able to shake off what she'd just done, even though without the haze of arousal clouding her judgment the mere idea of it mostly scared her.

Even if she struggled to pretend that Soren wasn't her older brother, there was no possible way somebody like him would want her in that way. Soren was almost 20, getting ready to move away as soon as the mood struck him to do so. He had the beginnings of a lucrative career in the military to worry about, and what would she be able to offer him in return as a student? She couldn't even properly smoke weed without his help, because she was practically a little girl in comparison.

Ruminating on the matter had proved unhelpful. Claudia silently resolved to herself that she simply wouldn't think of this again, and would also never tell a soul about the one time she had. Her next decision was about a nap, which she decided to go for. She dragged the covers the rest of the way up over her body, then fell asleep.

* * *

Due to her impromptu nap, Claudia awoke sometime later that night. The first thing she felt was hunger. The second was another wave of guilt about how her imagination had gotten the best of her. She pushed the latter aside and climbed out of bed, moving to turn the light on and pull on the shorts she usually wore around the house before she headed out the door. Leaving the door open behind herself provided just enough visibility to make it downstairs before she reached the switch to turn on the kitchen light.

She dug around in the fridge, hoping to find something she could quickly snack on even though it'd been a few weeks since she'd went to the grocery store. It also seemed like people had raided the last of her quick meals during the party. She'd have to call up Dad and let him know she'd be making the trip soon so that the charges on his card wouldn't be a surprise.

Eventually she realized that she would have to cook something. Something heavy, in the hopes that it would put her back to sleep after eating. Which meant she'd have to clear space on the counter, since people had been plopping down and spilling their drinks all over it (probably while eating her snacks.) She got the dishrag from a hook above the sink and brushed away everything carelessly to the floor.

"Mmm, there you are," Soren grumbled from where he'd appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. "What're you doing?" he asked once he took note of all the red cups she'd thrown to the floor. He still didn't look completely put together, there was still a glaze to his eyes that didn't quite disappear even as he became aware.

"Trying not to starve," Claudia told him, turning around and motioning to the general disarray that surrounded them. "Look at this! The house is a mess, Soren!" She crossed her arms, giving him a look that clearly told him she expected a response.

After he considered the issues at hand, he devised some solutions that seemed obvious, at least to himself. "I'll order us delivery," he said, then took another long look around and wondered aloud, "how much do you think those one-time house cleaners charge?"

"Are you serious?" she questioned him, dropping her hands to her hips. "You sound kind of like Dad, you know. Trying to fix everything with money."

Soren stared at her, clearly struck aghast by the comparison. "I am not- this is different. This is stuff that can be fixed with money. That's all it is, right? Food and a clean house? We can buy those. We don't even have to bother using Dad's money, cause I've been making my own!"

"Fine, whatever," she scoffed, and then her belly rumbled and she told him as well, "I want pepperoni pizza."

"Pepperoni pizza it is," Soren assured her, then turned and headed back upstairs. Presumably to go call up a pizza place. Something like that could be ordered in the middle of the night, but the cleaning service would probably have to wait until the next day, at the very least.

He came back down to tell her it'd be 45 minutes, which was a little frustrating because she was hungry _now_ but at least she was only waiting on it, not cooking it herself. They went to the living room to spend that time, where they would have a clear view of the walkway leading to the door.

Viren didn't like them ordering delivery unless it was a treat. Instead, he'd have them take his card from his bedroom and go to the grocery store to restock for themselves most of the time. They pretty much had free reign over what went into the fridge, though a few outbursts from their father the few times he'd arrived to discover they'd only bought junk food had trained them to shop more healthily.

Soren surfed through the channels at first, pausing his idle clicks when he'd highlighted a certain program within the guide. Claudia sat next to him, looking at the screen expectantly, so he turned it to that. "Do you really still watch this?" she asked when it turned out to be the middle of a commercial break.

"Don't you?" Soren asked her back, remembering the story he'd seen on her computer just the other day. He hadn't really had the time to watch anything, actually, in between everything that had been going on at camp. As the show came back on, he started to realize he didn't know what was going on anymore.

"That plot's gotten a little convoluted," she admitted with a shrug. "I just like the two main characters anymore."

"The brothers," Soren felt the sudden need to point out.

"Yes, Soren, they're brothers," Claudia teased back. For some reason, though, she flushed faintly, turning quickly back to the screen. He sat back, kicking his feet up on the coffee table.

"Dad doesn't like us doing that," Claudia told him right away like she always did when she caught him. This time, he snorted.

"Dad's not here," he pointed out, not for the first time. Claudia sighed and rolled her eyes, as usual when he resorted to that. She understood why he was frustrated with their father for not being here, but wished he wouldn't sulk like this.

After a few more minutes, just as the episode was ending, Soren noticed a car pulling up to the house. He rose to his feet, and Claudia quickly followed his gaze to also see when the pizza delivery girl came out and gathered up their order.

"Pizza!" they both cheered, everything else forgotten as they raced to the front door. Soren pulled out his own card and showed it to the delivery girl to confirm everything. He took the box to the living room, but Claudia paused at the doorway, clearly hesitant as Soren made room to place it on the coffee table.

"We're not allowed to eat in this room…" she reminded him. That was one of the most important rules. If they left sauce stains on the living room furniture, their father would be beyond incensed.

Soren motioned for her to come in anyway. "Come on, Clauds. I'm sick of all of Dad's weird rules, and he's never here to catch us breaking them anyway. He's always at _work_ ," he said that mockingly, swaying a bit when he made a theatrical flourish.

"Are you still drunk?" she realized.

"I might be," he agreed. Claudia settled at that, not wanting to have this conversation while he wasn't all there. He seemed to come to the same conclusion as he wordlessly sat down to grab one of the provided paper plates and pile three slices onto it. Then he leaned into the couch, kicked up his feet again, and started to just… eat, while looking at the screen.

Other guys had talked about this, just sitting around and eating with their family while they watched television. At first, of course, he'd been appalled by such an idea. Until he realized how fondly they reminisced about it, saying how some days it was the only time their whole family would get together. Their whole family, once a day! That was the part that kind of got to him.

Claudia and him ate together, of course, though they had to do so in the dining room or at the island counter in the kitchen. Even when Viren had been more present, before he discovered that dumb cloud of stars, he usually took his meals to his 'office,' which was what he called the walk-in closet he'd converted to a small study. He kept it locked, except when he was inside- and even then, they'd been taught to always knock first.

He could easily remember and count the number of times they'd all eaten together as a whole family. On one hand, in fact, if he only counted the times Mom had been present as well. It'd always been a bit performative on the part of their children, especially for Soren. Unlike his sister, manners didn't always come naturally, and their parents were always quick to point out any transgression he made.

He'd always thought that they were right to teach him better, that out in the world he would need to eat politely and neatly in public to get anywhere in life. Now, though, he'd taken his own look at the outside world and realized that eating wasn't really the deal that their parents had always made it. People just kind of got hungry, then put food in their mouths. Nobody else cared about what kind of spoon was used.

After watching him eat one slice, Claudia finally ventured into the living room and sat next to him, then slowly put a single slice on a plate to take a few bites. She kept looking out the bay window like she expected to be caught by somebody outside. Eventually, though, an extended action scene on the show caught her attention enough that she relaxed as she finished her first slice. Without looking away she reached for a second.

Soren's hand batted against her as he also reached for more, but they both just laughed it off and went for separate sides of the pizza. They both ate until they were pleasantly full and tired again. Soren, in particular, seemed on the verge of going back to sleep right there on the couch. His head even lolled back slightly before he caught himself and sat up straight again.

Then, he leaned forward, and let out a disgusting burp before he groaned, "Oh no. Pizza wasn't a good idea."

"Sorsor?" Claudia turned to watch him as he suddenly stood again and staggered to the bathroom door. He had a hand over his mouth, just in case, and looked clearly ill. He didn't even bother to close the door before he was stumbling across the room to the toilet and kneeling just in time to vomit into it.

"Should I call anyone?" Claudia asked and he whined when he realized by her voice that she'd followed him inside.

"No! I'll be fine. I just…" Soren spat up a few more times before he stood to go rinse out his mouth, and then look at himself in the mirror. He looked like a hungover mess right now, and he could also see Claudia still standing behind him, looking concerned and unconvinced.

Meeting her gaze through the mirror, Soren said, "If I admit a party was a really bad idea, get the house cleaned up, and never do it again, will you let me off the hook for this one?"

"Of course, Sorbear. Just go rest. You look sick," she came up closer to rub his shoulder from behind.

He nodded thankfully to her reflection, then turned and gave her a real hug. Claudia squeezed him back for a moment, but then gently nudged Soren back. "Take a shower when you get up," she suggested. With that, they went back upstairs. Claudia walked behind him, just on the off chance he stumbled. He didn't, luckily, and then she herded him into his room and made sure he at least was on his bed before she went to her own.


	3. Chapter 3

Soren woke up late the next day, having slept through the incessant beeping of his alarm. He rolled around in bed for a while at first, shaking off the last of his grogginess. Then he took a quick glance at the watch on his wrist to find out that it was just a few minutes past 8 o'clock. The first thing he wanted to do was take a shower like Claudia had suggested last night.

He saw that her door was open as he went to the bathroom, which was still just a little more humid than the rest of the house when he went in. He hoped she'd managed to catch the bus. He had to peel off his sweat-soaked shirt when he undressed and found that his muscles still ached as he did so.

He eyed the length of the bathtub, decided to put the plug in place and start running a bath since he hadn't had the opportunity to soak for a while. Then he realized that in his haste to wash, he'd neglected to grab a change of clothes. He ran back to his room in the nude, since nobody else was home, and quickly dug through the clothes he'd left piled up at the foot of his bed. He found some of his newer pants and had been preparing to grab one of his new plain white shirts when he spied one of his old retro tees, lying on the ground right outside his closet from when he'd been putting things back.

He picked that one up instead and returned to the bathroom, where the piping hot tub had just begun to fill up. Soren set his fresh clothing on the back of the toilet and slipped into the water, letting out a low hiss as the heat immediately had him flushing. It woke him the rest of the way up while at the same time it soothed the last of his aches away.

He dunked his head for a bit, trying to remember the last time he'd willfully chose a bath over a shower. He'd always taken the fact that they had the option for granted. Not anymore, though. He glanced at the soap trays and settled on choosing sweet over floral when it came to fragrances since he just had what Claudia bought to work with.

He quickly washed his hair, which only took a dollop of shampoo. He didn't bother with the matching conditioner and instead lounged for a bit. He'd rinse off the rest of his body at the end when the water was flowing instead of stewing. He kicked at the faucet taps until he'd managed to get the water to stop now that it was full enough, then sank lower until just his knees and face were above the surface.

He considered what had been going on since he came back. Upon remembering that he'd pulled a knife on somebody the day before, Soren realized another attempt at socialization probably wasn't in his cards today. There was still the mess downstairs, too, which he'd need to have taken care of. So he'd focus on that when he got out. Claudia deserved to come back to a clean house if he could manage it.

He dipped his head once more and held his breath until he grew a little lightheaded, which reminded him of holding hits of weed. His sister had really taken to that as well, which was just as nerve-wracking as it was exciting. She was adorable when she was stoned, even if she'd also gotten a little paranoid the night before. He had been pushing her to break Dad's rules, though. He realized faintly that made it partially his fault, and decided he'd have to make it up to her. He resurfaced for air.

He also remembered the way she'd hovered at his side after he'd gotten sick, providing support without being overbearing about it. She was good at that. He could think back on the last few times he'd been undeniably ill and how well she always cared for him during those times. Of course, he'd protect her back, in his own way. Maybe, in a way, showing her how to be high was just a new form of his protection.

She was bound to come across such things eventually, with how accepted it was becoming. The idea of Claudia smoking with somebody else, outside of the house, without Soren there to make sure she would be safe… It made him want to get aggressive again, with whoever would dare do something like that behind his back. He didn't have to worry about that as much now, because Claudia had already tried weed for the first time, with him.

With alcohol, especially, he wanted to be there when she first drank it herself. It had a way of really messing him up, making him act out, just like he had yesterday. If she had a similar reaction, he'd need to be there to keep her level. He didn't want anybody else around, either, for the same reasons. It'd be just the two of them. He'd get them something sweet and fruity, something strong, but only a pint of it for them to split.

He slid back to sit up, and while looking across the bathroom to the towel rack he happened to spy where Claudia had dropped her dirty clothing. There were two distinct piles side by side, one was her shirt and bra and the other one was her panties and the tiny exercise shorts she insisted on wearing around the house because they were 'comfy.'

He hated those running shorts, hated the way they would ride up her thighs, the way they clung to her ass whenever she went digging through the lower parts of the fridge. One of the few things both he and his father agreed on was that she absolutely could not wear those shorts anywhere but at home. He stared at them for a little longer before tearing his eyes away as his cock twitched in interest at the route his thoughts had taken.

He laid back again and sank into the water as he took himself in hand and started to stroke. He didn't bother trying not to think about whatever he wanted. Thoughts weren't actions, he had already rationalized to himself a while ago. Even if this wasn't the first time he thought about Claudia while she wore her favorite shorts and bent over the dining room table, it wasn't like he'd actually do anything to her. It was just something he liked to jerk himself off to, and it wasn't like she didn't do that to herself, as he'd discovered in her room.

That vibrator was small and thin. It wasn't even a matter of ego to Soren that his dick as it stood now would dwarf the toy, though the realization still made him groan and throb. He imagined her using it and wondered what kind of noises she made. Their closets had always provided a good sound barrier, so try as he might he couldn't remember ever hearing if something like that happened. Did she do it a lot? While she was reading dirty stories on her computer, maybe? Fuck, maybe she did that while she was still wearing those itty-bitty tight shorts.

Soren's voice finally broke as he came, hard, and then he started to whimper aloud and kept milking himself until he started to tear up, body quaking by the time he fell back into the tub again. He hadn't been able to get off like that since before he'd even left. It left him reeling for another minute longer, staring blankly at the tiled ceiling as he banished his previous thoughts. In the aftermath of it, he did feel a little guilty but once more reminded himself that he had never actually done anything.

Once he'd fully put himself back together, Soren removed the tub's plug and stood to turn on the shower, grab a strawberry-scented body wash and finish up. After he'd dried off, Soren pulled on his pants, then he picked up the shirt and put it on. Pridefully, he recognized that this old shirt was a little tighter than he remembered it being. The design was slightly stretched across the width of his chest, and when he looked in the mirror he personally thought it looked pretty hot.

He checked the time as he put his wristwatch back on, surprised to see that he'd spent two hours in the tub. He gathered up all the dirty laundry in the room including Claudia's and brought it down the hall to deposit it in the laundry nook.

He reminded himself to go grab his phone before he headed downstairs. He quickly looked up a few cleaning services and called around to get a few ballpark quotes, wincing each time when they all said it would be a hundred dollars or more, from the way he described it, even if it was just the downstairs areas that needed it.

Eventually, he invited the company who's receptionist had the kindest voice to come over, to look around and give him a more exact estimate of what he would be paying. Apparently, he'd been exaggerating the extent of the mess, because when a van with two people in uniforms showed up they walked through and then offered to do it immediately for a flat hundred. Of course, he accepted. He even ended up helping, for lack of anything better to do to pass the time.

They were just finishing up with steam cleaning the upholstered furniture when Claudia came in through the front door, looking around with a smile when she realized what was going on. Upon hearing the front door, Soren handed off the spray bottle and rag he'd been using to one of the workers and came out to meet her in the foyer. "The house looks a lot better!" she told him excitedly in greeting. Then she looked at him and added, "You do too."

"Thanks, Clauds. Sorry again about, you know, yesterday. So I was thinking that maybe after these guys are done, we could go out?"

"What do you mean?" Claudia asked him but then thought about it herself. She snickered and reminded him, "I already told you I forgive you, Sorbear. You don't have to do all that!"

"It's not like that," he insisted, though she giggled as if she didn't quite believe him, "I just want to get out of the house, and figured I'd invite you."

"Alright. I won't change out of this just yet, then," she told him, then went upstairs to go drop off her backpack. Soren followed after her, pausing at the doorway to her room. He had to be sure before he did anything to prepare for his idea.

"Did you mean it, when you said you wanted to try drinking?" he asked her as she came back out. She stopped and regarded him carefully, clearly wondering where this was coming from.

"Sure," she answered. "It looked like you were having fun at first. So why not? What's with the fifth degree about it?"

"Just making sure," he said with a shrug just before Claudia noticed and motioned to one of the workers heading up the stairs towards them. He told Soren that they were done, they would be heading out now, and that he would be charged for the service within the next 24 hours. Soren just nodded along, said 'yeah' a few times, and ultimately allowed them to let themselves out.

Once they'd gathered up all their equipment and were rolling out in their van, Soren turned back to her with an excited grin. "Wanna go wait for the bus?" he asked her.

"Hold on," Claudia told him, "I wanna call up Dad, and maybe you could help me with groceries on our way back?"

"I could buy groceries," she heard him murmur under his breath but didn't take him up on the offer. Instead, she pulled out her phone and scrolled through her contacts to dial their father. A nervous chill settled over Soren as she put it on the speaker while it rang.

"Claudia?" Viren's voice asked when he'd picked up. "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah! Soren's here right now, by the way! So say hi now!" Claudia brought her phone up closer to Soren. He should at least say something, to appease her.

"Hey Dad," he settled on.

"Soren," Viren said, by way of greeting. "It's good to hear from you again. I'd like to catch up, but unfortunately, I'm very busy right now. I'm sure you understand."

"Wait, Dad!" Claudia interjected, yelling into the phone and jerking it back to herself. "Can we go grocery shopping? Also, you are gonna come home soon, right? Before Soren has to go again?"

"Yes, yes, Claudia. My card's in my nightstand, as you know, and I'll be back in…" they could hear him moving things around, before he told them, "2 weeks, for a few days. Aaravos will be entering its dormant period during that time, by my calculations, so I can take a small break before I come back to try and make sense of these latest transmissions..."

Soren rolled his eyes at the tone his father's voice took on whenever he started to talk about the 'talking nebula' he'd practically fallen in love with. Claudia, however, responded with a sweetly-spoken, "Really? Alright, sounds cool Dad. Love you, bye!" A second after she'd said 'bye' the other end of the line hung up.

She ducked into their Dad's room to go grab his credit card and Soren went to go get a few things from his room, including his jacket. They met up in the foyer to head out together.

When Soren opened the door they discovered that somebody was heading up their walkway, a familiar face. Callum's step-dad, the mayor of Katolis. "Sir," Soren immediately greeted, and just saying the word made him stand up a little straighter.

Harrow chuckled, "At ease, soldier," he teased. Soren didn't fully relax. "You're currently on leave, I presume?"

"Yeah, but just for a month," Soren answered quickly.

"I had noticed," his smile fell slightly as he added on, "and so did the neighbors. I'm supposed to talk to your father about your little… get together, the other day. I'll admit, at first I considered it, but you're not a boy anymore. So I decided to talk to you directly."

Soren heaved a sigh, ready to admit his guilt, "I understand, sir. That was a mistake, and it won't happen again."

"That's all I needed to hear," Harrow assured him, then clapped him on the shoulder and reminded him, "We all make mistakes, Soren." With that, he turned away and headed back to his own home.

After he was well out of earshot, Claudia loudly let out a relieved, "Phew!"

"Yeah," Soren let out a sigh of relief as well. "I'm just glad the mayor is a reasonable guy. Let's get going before he changes his mind."

Claudia was only happy to follow him to the bus stop. On their walk there, Soren brought up, "I'm working on my driver's license. Next time I visit, we'll be able to go out whenever and wherever we want."

"Can't wait! Where are we going now?" she asked him.

"The mall? Unless you're not into that anymore…" Soren paused momentarily to look back at her as they were approaching the bus stop. "This time I actually want to buy some things, though."

Claudia let out a joyful squeal, and then she launched herself after Soren, latching on with a hug from behind. "We're going to actually buy things?" she asked like she couldn't quite believe it even after echoing it herself. They had spent a lot of their teen years at the mall, but not very much money in comparison. It was another thing that Viren only allowed for special occasions, and even then he operated under the impression that a $25 limit could do more than keep them fed while there. Claudia wondered aloud, "What's your limit, Sorbear?"

"I dunno. Let's start with 100 each and see how that goes," he suggested. Then he started to try and shrug her off so they could sit at the stop, but she wouldn't budge. Instead, she squealed again and buried her face in his shoulder, clinging even closer.

Soon enough, the bus came rolling up, and only then did Claudia finally drop off of Soren's back so they could get on, pay the fare, and find a pair of open seats. "Are you sure you really want to spend that much?" she questioned, as they got closer to their planned destination.

"Yeah, I do. I was saving up just for this, okay? So just… let me do this for us, yeah?"

"Okay, yeah," Claudia agreed readily. She wasn't trying to fight it, just wanted to be sure Soren was sure about it before she got too excited. She considered which stores she would go to. There were so many options available with a hundred dollars to spend. "What stores are you going to?" she asked him.

"First thing's first- I haven't eaten yet. Food court, then shopping?" he suggested, patting his belly to illustrate. She hummed.

"I can get started on shopping while you spend all of your limit on greasy mall junk, like usual~" she blew a playful raspberry at him.

"What? No, Clauds, food is separate. You can eat and still spend whatever," he told her. She was stunned a little by that, he could tell, blinking at him as she slowly comprehended it.

"Really?" she asked him.

He smiled back at her fondly and assured her, "Really."

The ecstatic noise she let out got several of the other passengers looking at them. Behind them somewhere a woman's voice commented, "Oh, that was just the young couple sitting at the front of the bus. Anyway, I'll be home soon, bye," and then she hung up her phone. Both of them chuckled a little awkwardly when they overheard that.

It was far from the first time that had happened to them, so it rolled off their backs quickly enough. Soren supposed he could understand where the confusion came from since they had different hair and eye colors. They'd never been particularly shy about showing affection in public, either, a shared trait which had only intensified after the divorce of their parents.

"Oh, here we are!" Claudia cheered, sitting up to lean against the window as the bus drove slightly past the mall and then stopped. Soren and she quickly got off, thanking the driver as they stepped down. The mall looked to be fairly empty today as they made their way to the food court at the heart of it.

Soren headed straight to his favorite burger stand, glad to see that they were still operating. Claudia hovered close by as he made his order. "I wanna wait to eat, Soren. Do you think I could maybe-?" she coaxed indirectly after he'd paid for his food, fluttering her lashes a little.

He chuckled, turned to her and dug through his wallet, counted out a couple of twenty-dollar bills, and then handed them to her. She counted them herself and gasped at the fact that he really had just handed her a cool hundo.

"Have fun," he told her, still smiling wide.

"Okay!" she eagerly agreed, then gave him a quick hug before she sped off. Soren laughed to himself at how happy she clearly was right now. Then his order was called out, so he gathered that and found himself a place to sit and munch. He noticed that for the time being she was sticking to storefronts that were within view of the court. He watched her get a few things at a makeup shop while he actually ate.

It didn't take him long at all before he was tossing his trash and jogging over to catch up with her just as she was walking out of the store with a bag. "I, uhm, kinda already spent most of it here," she admitted once she'd noticed him, blushing.

"That's fine. Let's walk around a bit?" Soren suggested. He could easily give up his own hundred if she saw something else she really wanted. But he wouldn't offer that just yet, because she'd turn him down unless the purchase was actively tempting her.

They did a few laps, while they caught up. Claudia asked at one point, "So, you're actually going to be on active duty after this? Aren't you scared?" her voice wobbled on the last word, betraying the fact that she was.

"I'll be fine, Clauds. That's what training was for," he assured her, though truth be told he was a little frightened, because who wouldn't be? But he was ready, too. And he'd always found his own courage in being strong for both of them. So, he put up a heroic front about the matter, and she was polite enough not to look behind it.

At first, he thought she was slowing down because she was nervous, and he slowed his step as well as he got ready to further placate her worries. Then he saw that she was staring intently at something in one of the storefront windows. He blushed upon realizing it was a lingerie shop.

They had three mannequins poised in the front window, each wearing a different outfit. Even without following her gaze, Soren knew which one had caught her attention the most. It was a black set, made of silk or something that looked similar enough. Cording crisscrossed the open front panels of each separate piece. He tried not to, but of course, he imagined her wearing it. By now, they had both inadvertently paused to stare.

Something that he normally kept buried possessed Soren to ask, quietly, "Do you want me to buy you that?"

"Soren, no. It's way more than what I have left, I couldn't-"

"If you still had the money, you would've bought it?" he reworded to make it seem more theoretical. In the face of her continual hesitancy to admit it, he made up his own mind. "Let's at least go in and ask about the price."

"Alright," she agreed, trying not to break out into a grin at the thought that she might actually get to have it. As they walked in, she grasped for his hand, to show the employees that they were shopping together. "We don't have to get it if it turns out to be expensive," she reminded him.

At the counter, the cashier was happy to help her with the sizing, then handed her the outfit and showed her to the dressing rooms. She then showed Soren where he could sit to wait before she stood aside, letting Claudia know that she would be available to help if there were any issues putting on the lingerie set.

After a minute or so, Claudia called out that she couldn't quite get something in the back, and the attendant quickly poked in to help her. He heard them chat briefly, and Claudia let out a laugh at something said near the end before the helpful employee came back out. She stepped to the side with a knowing smirk right before Claudia stepped out after her.

Soren felt his breath go shallow, his hands twisting into the fabric of his pants where he'd been resting them against his thighs. The cords that actually served as lacing were pulled tight across her skin, highlighting the softness of her curves. They both seemed emboldened by his reaction because the clerk tittered at them as Claudia spun in place.

He couldn't believe her, she paused with her back to them and wiggled her butt back and forth a couple of times. The back was cut like a thong, and the stockings shimmered in the store's harsh lighting. His mouth went dry. She peered over her shoulder at him, gave him a little wink, then slipped back into the dressing room.

Once he could breathe again, Soren asked, voice roughened, "How much?"

"$120, for the whole set," she chirped. He nodded somewhat blankly, still gazing intently at the door to the dressing room Claudia was in. He could see her feet through the door clearance, watch as she slid each stocking off her leg and then the panties dropped too. He licked at his teeth as he tried to reign in his current hormone-fueled state. What the hell had she been trying to pull with a move like that?

Staring wasn't going to help the matter, so Soren stiffly stood and went with the cashier over to the counter. Claudia came back out in her normal clothes, with the outfit neatly folded back together, to find that he had already paid for it. "Wait, how much was it?" she questioned him.

"Don't worry about that. Come on," he grabbed at her upper arm and steered her out of the store. As soon as they were out of earshot of the store clerk he stopped and turned to her to ask, "What was that? Why did you-?" he left the last part unsaid.

"She asked if I wanted to 'show off to my boyfriend' and I thought it'd be weird if I told her you were actually, you know…"

He sat down on a nearby bench, trying not to think too deeply about what had just happened. She'd wedged open a floodgate though, one that he'd kept locked up for so long that the torrent freed was unstoppable. A part of him wanted to snap at her, wanted to yell at her that there'd been no need to shake her ass, inform her that she had no right to actively taunt him with what he couldn't have.

Claudia watched as he rubbed at his face and quietly groaned to himself, clearly troubled. "Sorsor? We can just say it was a joke I took a little too far, okay? I can even go return this-" she made to turn away, go back to the store, but Soren snatched at her wrist.

"No. Let's just…" he took a moment to breathe and center himself before he remembered what else they'd left the house for. "Groceries," he announced somewhat abruptly as he stood and let go of her.

"Groceries," she echoed agreeably, nodding. So they headed out of the mall and down a few blocks in relative silence, heading to a different store than the one Claudia usually went to. Since she had mall bags with her, Claudia stuck close to her brother as they traveled on foot, linking their arms together. She wondered if it was Soren's new army jacket that made it so that people didn't even look twice at them.

Shopping went by uneventfully, though Soren did tell her he would be right back before he stepped into the liquor section. She grabbed a few things from nearby shelves as she waited until he came out with a grin on his face and two paper bags that clearly contained bottles. She hummed as he placed them in the cart, wondering, "How did you…?"

"I'm just that good," he quipped. Truthfully, though, he was just lucky that skipping a shave and wearing his jacket gave off the impression that he was older, along with the cashier having not particularly cared either way.

They finished up shopping after that. Claudia had bought a bit more than she usually would've, now that she had an extra pair of arms to help haul it all home. By the time they left the store laden with grocery bags, the evening had already rolled in over the city for long enough that the streetlights had turned on.

Luckily there was a nearby bus stop that would connect to their route home, so most of the hauling actually consisted of fitting it all across both their laps as they rode. Soren was still a little quieter than usual but wasn't quite so tense anymore. They were making idle chatter by the time they were getting off the bus though, the subject being a cute dog that'd been brought on.

Once they got home and were putting things away in the kitchen, Claudia peeked into one particular bag and pulled out one of the bagged bottles, curious. "So… Soren," he closed the cabinet he'd been putting something in to look at her. "This is for us, right?" she asked, wobbling it in her hand.

"Yeah, but put it down. It's a school night, Clauds."

"Tomorrow night?" she cajoled since that would be a Friday. He nodded, then held out his hand. She passed it over and let him pull off the bag, revealing a green, squared bottle with black labels on it. The glass was just opaque enough that the color of the dark liquid inside was unclear.

"Ah, this is the second one anyway. The other one is probably more your style," he set that aside on the counter, then grabbed out the other bottle and debagged it to reveal a round clear bottle with pink liquid in it. She saw a picture of a fruit medley on the front of it to depict the intended flavor.

Claudia grabbed it from him and looked over the label, though she wasn't entirely sure what she was reading she did vaguely understand what 45% alcohol was referring to. "Is that strong?" she asked Soren, tapping at that part of the label to show him.

"Yeah, we'll get pretty wasted, especially since it'll just be the two of us on this bottle. You think you'll be able to keep up?" he teased challengingly.

She poked her tongue out at him, then reminded him, "Just don't get sick on me again."

"Too soon," Soren pouted, but she could tell he was still just playing so she laughed. Then they finished putting everything away except for a pair of quick meals that Claudia quickly threw together for them to eat. After that, Claudia gathered up the things she'd gotten at the mall and then they both went upstairs, bidding one another a good night before retiring to their bedrooms.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oops this turned dubcon

The next day Soren found himself awake and, more distressingly, with nothing to do while Claudia was at school. At first, he tried putting on some music and working out, but eventually, he'd gotten through more than a normal daily amount of sets. That left him at least a little more settled, feeling less like he was vibrating out of his skin in the emptiness of the house. He realized that he'd never really been at home and truly alone - even once their father had stopped coming home from work every night, he could always count on Claudia arriving either at the same time or soon after he did.

Somehow everything he tried to think about ended up circling back to his sister, and as soon as his brain was given permission to think about her it would instantly flashback to her little mall tease the day before. It was driving him crazy. At first, he tried to get it out of his system by whacking one out. When that didn't lessen the obsession at all, then he tried to avoid touching himself instead. He even considered breaking into the drinks early, even after Claudia had made him swear to wait until she'd come back home.

Next, he went for a jog around the neighborhood, stopped by an old friend's house and managed to score some weed. Luckily, Gren also wanted to catch up, so he stayed for a couple of hours while they played video games and chatted. The incident with the knife came up, but Soren was quick to blame that on the vodka. He only barely noticed the time that had passed when there was just enough to sprint back home. Maybe.

Gren made him swear to visit again at least one more time before he took off running. He ended up taking a shortcut through an open yard and vaulting himself over their own backyard fence. His recent training came in handy as he rolled into the tumble and kept going, barging in through the back door just as Claudia was coming back downstairs and calling out his name after checking his empty room.

"I was in the backyard!" he called out, rather unconvincingly. Claudia came into the kitchen and looked him over, a brow raising as she took in his slight flush and the dirt on the bottom parts of his pants.

"Don't worry, Soren. Just… leave a note next time? Oh, and I should get your new number, too," she tapped at her head as she suggested those things. Soren nodded and kicked off his shoes, then took her phone and added his number to her contacts, while she did the same on his. They passed them back once finished, and then Claudia started to ask, "So, when were we going to…?"

"We could start whenever you want," Soren said, shrugging.

"I wanna get changed first," Claudia said before she walked away to go upstairs. Soren retrieved the fruity liquor from where he'd stashed it at the back of the freezer. He went to the cupboards to grab some regular glasses first, but then an idea occurred to him.

Their parents had once occasionally indulged in a drink together and had always had used the same set of four shot glasses. It'd been one of the pettier things they'd squabbled over during the divorce, so Soren distinctly remembered that at last, they'd finally agreed to split them two and two.

He made his way out to the foyer to head upstairs and see if he could find those shot glasses, just as Claudia was coming back downstairs. She was wearing her favorite shorts once again. "I put those in the dirty laundry!" Soren blurted out.

"That explains why I found them there~," Claudia said, then when she came down to actually face him she bopped him gently on the nose with a finger, telling him, "I'm ready now. Oh, and I grabbed this too," she held up the CD player that she had once more swiped from his room.

"I was gonna look for Dad's fancy glasses," Soren told her.

"Let's not dig through Dad's stuff," she insisted, now grabbing at his arm and beginning to drag him back to the kitchen. Soren went willfully, even though he did consider the fact she'd technically just dug through his things.

She had him sit at the island counter, then went and got out two normal cups. "These'll work, right?" she asked as she turned to him with one in each hand.

"Yeah," he answered as he took them from her, setting them up. He only filled each one up about halfway, to start with. He pushed one to Claudia as she took the seat next to him. "Cheers," he said, holding his up.

Claudia peered into her cup, sniffed at it and made a face at the sweet yet acrid nature of it. "Cheers," she echoed, clinking her glass to her brother's before she took a little sip. Soren, meanwhile, knocked his first drink back all in one gulp. She winced at the sting on her tongue, then swallowed. She could feel how it lit up a burn all down her throat.

Soren poured himself another glass, filling it to the top this time. "It tingles," she whined before she took another drink, this time a bigger one.

"It tastes alright, though?" he wondered. She considered it and nodded. Other than the weird, obvious burn of the alcohol, it otherwise reminded her of fruit punch. She watched as he took his own heavy drink, trying to match him as best she could by bringing her cup back up to her lips for another sip.

"Lemme know if you need a refill," Soren murmured. Then they quietly focused on their drinks. It wasn't long before Claudia had worked through her half cup. At that point, she pushed it to him, waiting wordlessly. He filled hers up fully as well and pushed it back, smirking.

Claudia snapped her eyes back at him challengingly as she started to drink that cup in bigger mouthfuls, more like how she'd normally drink something. Before long the warmth in her throat and her belly began to spread. As it settled against her mind she asked him, "It doesn't taste so bad once you get used to it, huh?"

"Yeah, that's usually the case. This stuff is really sweet, too, so that helps," he told her before he took another long gulping drink. Claudia found herself giggling as he spilled a little in his haste, a line of soft pink liquid running down his chin and dripping against his shirt. He wiped at his mouth after he was done, and then he was going for another refill.

"Slow down," Claudia insisted. Soren still poured his next cupful but didn't drink from it immediately. Instead, he leaned forward and watched as she took a few more drinks of her cup until it had started to actually affect how she felt. At that point, she put it down and swayed a bit in her seat before asking Soren, "I'm gonna get up. Could you… help me?"

"Yeah," Soren responded as he shakily slid off his stool to stand, then held out his hands to her. Claudia tried to get off of her own seat, but try as she might she ultimately ended up stumbling off of it and into Soren's arms. "Hey, you okay?" he asked.

"I'm drunk," she gasped like she had just realized it herself. Pushing herself off his chest, she demanded, "Put on the music, Sorbear."

"Alright, alright," Soren chuckled, reaching over to press play. As soon as the first notes floated out, he realized she'd also swapped out the disc. "Some of your music?" he ventured the guess.

"Mmhmm," she hummed affirmatively, already beginning to sway. As the music built she started to spin and pirouette. At first, Soren watched to make sure she wouldn't get herself sick, but she seemed to get into the flow of drunk dancing quickly enough that he found he was the one getting fuzzy-headed as he watched her prance around the kitchen.

He fell back into his stool, all too aware of the way his eyes immediately trailed to and lingered at where they shouldn't be. He attempted to hide what he was certain would be a visible blush behind his cup as he sipped at it until it'd been drained, staring the whole while. For fuck's sake, she wasn't even wearing a bra, was she? Thankfully, just as he'd started to consider telling her to stop (while somehow not admitting to how it made him feel,) the music began to trail off the end of the first song. She came spinning to a stop in front of him just as the last notes faded away.

It turned out that coming to a full stop was what made her begin to stumble, but Soren was quick to lean forward and help steady her. "I feel kinda dizzy…" she admitted sheepishly. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at her. Of course, she did, after all that dancing around. "Wanna go to my room now, Soren. Come with me," she gazed up at him pleadingly as she asked that of him. Soren nodded, despite the vague feeling that somewhere in the back of his head warning sirens were beginning to go off. Especially when Claudia turned to grab at her drink once more, taking another long sip that ended in her emptying the cup. Then she switched off the player and shot him a half-cocked smile.

Soren grabbed the rest of the bottle before they stumbled up the stairs together. Claudia turned out to be a bit of a handsy drunk, hanging off of Soren's arm and keeping their sides plastered close, half-dragging him along by the wrist when they entered her bedroom. She turned to plop down onto her bed, tugging on Soren's hands until he sat next to her, a little stiffly and looking around nervously.

"Do you remember when I used to have nightmares, and Mom didn't want me to sleep with them cause I was too old?" she suddenly brought up as Soren was putting the drink on the floor beside the foot of the bed. Soren couldn't help but notice her slight vocal slur.

"You'd come to my room, instead. Until Dad said I was too old to let you," he said in response. The memory made him frown after a moment and specify, "He made me stop letting you sleep with me. Said it was weird-"

"Would it be weird if I wanted you to stay here tonight? I just wanna be close to someone- cause I've been here all alone ever since you left," she suddenly started to tear up as she said that plaintively.

"Hey, hey," Soren immediately started to soothe quietly, "Clauds, shh. I can- I can stay here tonight. Just stop crying," his own voice started to waver as he begged her. Claudia turned to him and buried her face against his shoulder, sniffling. Soren wrapped his arms around her and started to pet her back, making more soft shushing noises as she shook.

"S-sorry, I know I'm being a big baby," Claudia eventually murmured against his chest before she sat up, wiping her face and adding, "I don't know what came over me. I just don't wanna be alone."

"I'll be here tonight, Clauds. You're not alone," Soren assured her, and she sniffed and nodded.

"Can we go to bed now? Crying gave me a bit of a headache," she admitted. Soren nodded, scooting a bit while Claudia shifted around and stretched out on her bed. When he slid off her bed to the floor after she'd gotten settled, she let out a low whine of disapproval.

"What's wrong now?" Soren questioned.

"Come lay by me, Sorbear~" she insisted, shifting back a little more and patting the bed beside her. The warning bells came a little clearer this time, but he was helpless to deny her whims as he crawled back onto her bed and carefully, cautiously stretched himself out next to her while keeping a good couple of inches of empty space in between their bodies.

They were facing one another at first, but Soren could see that Claudia was already starting to fall asleep. She rolled around until she had her back to him, facing the wall. Then she shuffled back until she had curled herself right up against his front, murmuring with content sleepiness as the heaviness in her body grew.

Soren tried not to react, willed himself to stay calm as she pressed herself harder against his body. He wasn't sure what to do with his arms, yet somehow they'd ended up around her. When he tried to move them away, she pulled the top one back over her waist. This was almost torturous, the way her pert little butt slotted against his crotch as she settled against his warmth. He could feel it as her breath slowed and grew shallower until she was letting out tiny snores.

A part of his psyche was railing to head straight back to his room, away from this situation and the way it was beginning to make him feel. There was a darker, hidden part to those feelings though, and right now it was being much louder about what it wanted. Soren eventually let his hand drift, sliding along the valley of her trim waist and down to her hip. He squeezed down on the small expanse of her thigh that was covered by her shorts, gently at first and then harder as she failed to react.

It was a maddening duality, the way his brain yelled at and warned him not to do this, not to take it to this point, even as he kept grabbing handfuls of her legs to squeeze and caress. Before long he found himself playing with one of the leg hems of her shorts, toying with the idea of going further still. His own breath had deepened by that point.

"Maybe I'll just…" he let his hand delve past her shorts for the first time, his breath catching and his brain shorting out when he realized that she was wearing the panties he'd just bought her underneath. He felt her body twitch and her thighs closed around his wrist, pinning it, the first time he delicately traced a fingertip down the outline of her slit. He stilled, holding his breath until she had settled fully and her legs unclenched from around his hand. He did it again, letting out a tiny whimper as this time her hips nudged back.

Even if she was asleep, there was a part of her that liked that. Emboldened by the positive response, Soren undid the button of his jeans and slowly worked the fly down, wincing at how the soft hiss of the zipper was louder than Claudia's sleepy murmurs. Just as he was starting to reconsider, she pushed back again. He gasped as the crease of her ass managed to grind against the front of his underwear.

"Fuck," he grunted, reaching down to pull his underwear aside, take himself in hand and squeeze at the base. He couldn't believe he was going to- to… "I shouldn't," he reminded himself aloud, then pressed his face to the back of her shoulders and tried to will himself not to think about what he could do. He'd pulled his hips back to try and minimize the fleeting contact of her soft legs against his cock.

He couldn't stop, he realized. Even if he got up right now and left her room and never brought it up, he'd always know how close he'd come to this. He'd always wonder. The realization that he'd already crossed so many lines was enough for him to tear up even as he took his cock and slid it into the tempting crevasse between her thighs. He felt her body shudder as he allowed himself to slide up in between the shorts and her panties. Both fabrics were soft, but there was still a contrast that instantly drove him wild. And the warmth-

"I'm so sorry," he groaned into her shoulder as his hips started to pump of their own accord. He wrapped his arms around her waist and tucked her in against his body as he fucked her soft, tight, pale little thighs, getting off even quicker on the fact that he'd be cumming on both the new underwear that he'd bought and those shorts that had taunted him for so long.

Soren started to hiccup, near to sobbing as he worked himself up to a breakneck pace. In his right mind, he would have realized that Claudia's breath had also started to stutter, and her eyes were squeezed tight as her face turned red. She clenched her thighs down on his cock and listened to the way he choked at the sensation before his voice broke.

"Oh fuck ohfuck-" he chanted as he came, squeezing her pelvis tight as he held it back against his, circling and rolling his hips languidly. After a few seconds, though, as soon as he started to regain his breath, it started to dawn on Soren what he'd just done. "Fuck," he groaned once more to himself, but with less pleasantry this time.

He jerked away from Claudia, then clambered out of her bed and backed away to the door. He watched her carefully as he moved away, but she didn't turn to him or say anything. Beginning to shake, Soren turned and bolted out of her room, throwing the door closed behind him in his haste.

The moment the door clicked closed, Claudia rolled to her back and shoved both hands down her shorts. She hadn't fingered herself often, but she couldn't fight the urge to plunge two fingers into her sopping wet hole as she jerked desperately at her clit with her other hand. She let the gasps and whimpers fall freely from her mouth, hoping he'd hear her.

How hadn't he noticed she'd been awake for most of that? She had found herself paralyzed; first by shock, and then when he had said he was sorry… She hadn't wanted to startle him, hadn't wanted to give him a reason to stop. Even if he had pulled aside her panties, too, forced himself into her, she would have kept trying to play like she was asleep. She would have given him that, in fact, a part of her had been hoping he'd take it.

Putting her fingers inside felt amazing when she was imagining her brother's perfect strong body. An orgasm rolled over her, making her whine loudly. She kept going, though, gasping when she gushed over her fingers on the second wave of pleasure. That managed to drain her, and she finally slumped back against her bed, quaking and staring at the ceiling as she dimly realized, while simultaneously passing out…

Whatever had just happened could only mean one thing. She had far more of a chance than she'd initially thought when first considering it.


	5. Chapter 5

Today was Saturday, Claudia realized as she woke up. That meant no school, which she was glad for. Her head ached terribly, and it only intensified as she rolled over and the morning light was able to hit her still-closed eyelids. Groaning, she slowly sat up, rubbing at her face as she blearily came to fully. Memories of last night started to reach the forefront of her mind. She needed to talk to Soren. She prepared to sit up when she started to realize the dried evidence of last night on the inside of her shorts. She peeled them off to find that her underwear hadn't fared any better. Not only was Soren's cum soaked into the front, but the inside of the crotch was still slightly dampened with her arousal. She quickly shimmied out of those too before she got up and went to go put on something different.

Once she was properly dressed in a loose skirt, she made her way down the hallway to Soren's room. Her heart sank as she peeked in only to discover that he'd gone missing. Somehow, she'd expected him not to take off. She walked in, looking around. It was something of a relief when she saw that his things were still unpacked and strewn about the room. Wherever he was, he wasn't planning to stay there. He'd be back if his stuff was all still here. She noticed that he'd taken his phone, at least. Of course she tried to dial up the new number she'd just gotten from him the other day. Of course, it rang once and then went to voicemail. She let out a frustrated grunt and hung up before the pre-recorded message could finish prompting her for a message.

What was she supposed to do? She considered sending him a text message, but what would she write? The obvious "we need to talk," would come off as far too ominous, but it wasn't like she could just admit that she'd been completely aware of and enjoyed what he'd done… or could she? Claudia turned to sit on her brother's bed, staring at her phone as she tried to mentally summon both the words to say and the courage to send them. After long deliberation, she settled on: "I was awake last night."

The five minutes she waited seemed more like hours, until suddenly her phone dinged once, and then twice more. Claudia picked the phone back up and started to read, even as the responses kept pouring in.

"I'm so sorry" he had written, followed by, "please don't hate me." Then he'd sent, "I was drunk" before the messages started to get a little more self-deprecating, as he sent her things like, "It's okay if you want me to leave" "I'm a horrible brother to you" "I shouldn't have done any of that."

"Just come home." she wrote back. That made his end of the text conversation go quiet. She could only hope that he'd listen to her. She didn't want to have this conversation like this, where things could be misconstrued, where he could just choose to stop participating after driving himself into a panic. She'd known she'd have to come at this carefully now, knew he'd be feeling like he'd done something wrong. Maybe he had, but he'd only done it after she'd knowingly tempted him into it. That's what she'd done, she realized now, even if she hadn't been entirely cognizant of her intentions the night before. She could have stopped him at any time, after all, just a single word would have sent him running away just like he was now.

As she mulled over what it could all mean, she didn't hear the front door open and close. She didn't realize Soren had come home, until he was standing at the entrance to his room, regarding her warily and silently enough that when she first noticed him, she startled slightly. After a moment of surprise, though, she then smiled softly and disarmingly at him, and scooted aside, patting the bed next to her in a wordless invitation to sit.

Soren shrank back into himself, averted his eyes and cast his gaze downward shamefully as he shook his head in declination. "Sorsor, please," she pleaded, then told him desperately, "I'm not mad. I'm not- come here, Soren." He looked like he was near to crying, grimacing at the ground. He shook his head again, harder and faster this time, refusing to come any closer.

"That's worse," he finally said, so quietly that Claudia could barely hear him. "You should hate me. I- I molested you, Claudia," and as he gave voice to that he did start to cry. "I shouldn't be anywhere around you!" he declared, louder. He started to back away from the door, so Claudia stood and quickly walked over to him, grabbing at his arm before he could bolt again. He was staring at the touch and then at her with wide scared eyes, like a deer caught in headlights.

"Soren," she breathed before leaning up to place her lips, gently, against his. Soren went still during it, then started to shake and tear up as she pulled away, stepping back one more time. She let him have that distance for now as she gazed longingly at him.

"It's wrong, Claudia. You know that, right? What if… what if Dad found out? You know I'd be the one he'd blame for it," he tried to explain, still sniffling in between words.

"Dad's never here," Claudia reminded him. Just to make sure he understood what she was doing, she added, "isn't that right, Soren?" she tilted her head at him and gave him a coy little smile.

"Don't do that," Soren pleaded quietly. "Don't try to use my words against me."

"Soren," she said, her voice still breathy. She started to lift her shirt, slowly. Soren couldn't help but stare openly at her as she pulled it up, then threw it off entirely. "Come here," she beckoned again. She hadn't been wearing a bra, it turned out. Soren felt himself growing weak at the sight, knees buckling as he started to give in.

He finally came close, willfully, dragging his gaze up from her chest to her face with an unsure, pleading look. "Go ahead," she coaxed. Soren shuddered and closed his eyes, flushing as he finally gave up. He grabbed the back of her neck, pulling her into it as he sealed his mouth over hers, demanding entrance to her mouth with his tongue. Claudia moaned in surprise and then swooned into the kiss as it deepened.

He started to walk her back as his hand trailed down. He pushed her to his bed, whipped off his shirt. Claudia scooted back to give him room as he crawled over the top of her and then lunged, grabbing at her hair now and twisting his hand into the long, silky locks to angle her head exactly how he wanted. Soren sealed his mouth over hers, rolling his body down against Claudia's. She shuddered and fell open to him.

He made a low noise, then started to grind through their clothes. He felt so thick, even through the heavy fabric of his fatigues, hard enough that it easily pressed against her. "We'll just do this… for now," he groaned.

Claudia whimpered and bucked as she heard that, keen on his last words. 'For now' implied this wasn't a one-time thing. She locked her knees in against his sides, used her legs to pull them closer still. Soren bit his lip, watching her writhe as he circled and bucked his hips. Blushing and whining, sweaty, she looked so beautiful. Better than any fantasy he'd ever had. He palmed over one of her tits as they bounced, squeezed at her nipple, and watched as she wiggled and her mouth fell open in a pretty little o shape.

Soren wondered if he could manage to wear just a little less, loosened his belt, and unbuttoned his pants until he could let them drop around his thighs. He grinned when he saw the way her eyes widened at the visible tent in his underwear. "Yeah?" he coaxed, just to be sure, squeezing at the bulge in his briefs.

"Mmhmm!" she hummed, nodding her head and gasping when he grabbed onto her hips, pulled her forward to grind against. He bit down on his bottom lip as he rolled his hips, pretended that he was fucking deep into Claudia. Shuddering, gasping, he stared down at her as he moved. Watched her slide a hand down the front of her skirt, into her panties. She parted her lips, and they both shivered at the almost-direct contact they now had. Just two flimsy layers of fabric, both getting wetter by the second.

His grip tightened as Claudia's writhing grew more uncontrollable, as her hips humped up on their own. She was moaning so sweetly, her chest heaving. "Sor-sor," she gasped, then started to pant, hot and wet and fast. Her body started to twitch and her eyes rolled back, her fluttering and dribbling cunt was the final straw for him.

Soren curled into her, moaning through his climax as he throbbed and made a mess in his underwear. They went still to catch their breaths. Soren was the first to speak, breathily remarking in amusement as he pushed himself up to his hands and knees, "We're pretty messed up, aren't we?"

"Mmhmm," Claudia agreed with a contented murmur, "but I really don't mind, if you don't…" Soren went to roll off of her, but then she grabbed his shoulders to follow the motion so that they both flopped to the side facing one another. She quickly clung to his chest, wrapping her thighs around one of his. "Do you think we could keep doing this?" she asked while hiding her face against his neck.

"What, like right now?" Soren asked in all honesty, already reaching for the hem of her skirt. Claudia started to giggle at his response, and after he thought over it enough to figure out what she meant he chuckled too. "I mean, uh, yeah. We already did it once-"

"Twice, silly. I was awake last night," she reminded him, tapping his nose with her finger. He momentarily blanched.

"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked her, his voice suddenly quiet.

"You would've stopped," Claudia explained. Her finger trailed down to his mouth, dragging along his bottom lip. Soren darted his tongue out after it, to rewet his lip. "And I didn't want you to stop," she added on before he could ask the obvious question in his eyes.

"You were trying to mess with me yesterday," he realized, and Claudia's breath caught at the possessive look he gave her after that.

"It worked, didn't it?" she asked coyly, as she dragged her finger down to the center of his chest. He let out a disbelieving huff in response. "Didn't it?" she coaxed him to verbally answer. He inhaled steadily and sat up before he answered.

"I'm going to get up, get dressed, and go buy condoms," he outlined. She flushed at how direct he was about his intentions already before he continued with, "and when I get back, we're going to drink that other bottle and I'm going to fuck you in every single room of this house…" he dragged his hips down against hers as he specified, "including Dad's study."

Claudia couldn't wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> & that is the end of this particular fic - but not the end of this au!!! hope ur looking forward to more just like i am :3


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